Title:Natural Bioactives as Potential Therapeutic Modalities Against NeuroAIDS
Volume: 21
Issue: 12
Author(s): Musheer Ahmed, Ashif Iqubal, Sanjula Baboota and Javed Ali*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi 110062,India
Keywords:
NeuroAIDS, HIV, Dementia, Antiretroviral therapy, Bioactive constituents, Neurocognitive disorders.
Abstract: With the introduction of antiretroviral therapy, the worldwide AIDS-related deaths have
decreased, and life expectancy has increased, including the prevalence of AIDS-related neurological
disorders or neuroAIDS. HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders such as mild neurocognitive
disorder and asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment have largely remained stable or increased
among the HIV-infected individuals in the combination antiretroviral therapy era. The emerging
evidence that antiretrovirals with high CNS penetration effectiveness score contribute to the neurotoxicity
and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders has ushered the search for natural, nontoxic
bioactive constituents having pre-established neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and restorative
neurocognitive activity. In this review, we have highlighted the probable mechanism of neuroAIDS
infection, the problem with the existing antiretroviral therapy, along with various bioactive constituents
with in vivo, in vitro, or ex vivo evidence of their neuroprotective activity that can be used
as an adjuvant with the current combination antiretroviral therapy regimen or can even serve as an
alternate to the antiretrovirals for treatment of HIV associated neurocognitive disorder.
